This weekend Duane and I decided to meet halfway instead of one or the other of us driving all the way to see each other. Akron was pretty close to halfway. So I did some research and found a cool place to stay. It was the old Quaker Oats mill/factory and they made the grain silos into hotel rooms. So every hotel room is round. Around the hotel they displayed old Quaker oats advertising posters and gears and machinery from the mill. It's a pretty neat place and is a national historic site. I was disappointed in several things, though. We found out when we got there that the majority of the floors of the hotel are now being used by the University of Akron as dorm rooms and by this time next year the entire hotel will be a dorm. I guess because of this, or because of the season, it seemed that everything was shut down. The hotel restaurant was never open, and the adjoining advertised shopping area was mostly closed down as well. The one eatery that was open provided very poor service. The area of town that the hotel was in had no other eating places. I was also disappointed that they didn't have a hot tub. Then we also wanted to go the the National Inventors Hall of Fame museum, and it was closed! But in spite of all that we had a nice time, since the main point was to see each other and relax and rest.
Here is a picture of a room (we had a king bed) but you can't tell too well that it is round.
On Sunday we left and went to Bucyrus/Galion area (about 1 1/2 hours away) to a church where my second cousin's husband is the pastor (for family that would by Tim and Kelly). It is a very small but friendly church and their kids were being baptized that day. There was also a potluck dinner afterward. We then had some time to burn before meeting up with Jeremiah and Heather, so we went to Lowe's and purchased bathroom fixtures for the master bathroom at our house (in NY).
I am continuing to stay with my cousins, Ken and Jeanne, in Ohio, and wishing that Duane and I were together. Please pray that he will have strength, energy, health, and time to finish this house remodel project up quickly. Pray that he will then be able to find a job in Ohio. Pray also that the house will sell quickly once it is put on the market.
